On Location
Siting Robert Smithson and His Contemporaries
Description:... In debates over the transition from modernism to postmodernism much is made of the shift from the autonomous art object to site-specific work. On Location: Siting Robert Smithson and his Contemporaries revives these debates by exploring the relationship between the site and the gallery space evident in the work of Robert Smithson and his peers. In the 1960s, artists began to work directly with the exhibition space, creating temporary installations or challenging the physical limits of the gallery by transforming its architecture. Others moved beyond the gallery to work on city streets or in the countryside, whilst others still explored the mechanisms of the art world itself, investigating the publications and reproductions that frequently replaced the direct experience of individual works. Robert Smithson engaged with all of these practices in different ways and, as a result, plays a pivotal role in these debates.
Show description